activex.exe only works when running in VB

[HFMa]

I have created an ActiveX.exe containing a single class. The purpose of this class is to use a comport on a remote machine. But I can't even get it to work on the local machine, unless I start the ActiveX.exe project in VB and then access it from another VB project. I have tried to use both

createobject

and

set obj = new cls

but I get a "The specified module could not be found." error.
I have done this many times before, and it usually works fine so I'm a bit puzzled. Any suggestions?